Windows Vista is good for security, but sometimes it can go too far making it hard to run programs that you know are safe and not giving a way to run them in the future. The way it treats some startup programs is a classic example, frequently displaying an annoying ‘Windows has blocked some startup programs’ error message.

I’ve finally found a way to unblock startup programs in Vista and to remove the ‘Windows has blocked some startup programs’ message. To do this follow the steps below:

* Click the Start button and enter ‘Task Scheduler’
* Enter an Administrator password or click Confirm as required by UAC
* Click the ‘Create Task’ link (not Create Basic Task)
* On the general tab give the task a name
* Select a user account that has Administrator privileges
* Check the option “Run only when user is logged on”
* Check the box “Run with highest privileges”
* Click the ‘Triggers’ tab and click the ‘New’ button
* Select “At log on” from the drop-down list at the top
* Check the “Any user” option
* At the bottom under Advanced Settings check the Enabled box and click OK
* Click the Actions tab and click the New button
* Click Browse and locate the program you want to run at startup
* In the “Add arguments” box enter /Startup
* Click the Settings tab
* Check the box “Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed”
* Uncheck the box “Stop the task if it runs longer than:”
* Click OK, then OK again